Anterior Compartment Of Lower Leg Research Articles

Unilateral Sensitive Spinal Anesthesia. Case Report

A 46-year-old male was admitted for tenolisys of anterior compartment of lower leg under spinal anesthesia. Spinal puncture was performed with the patient in the lateral left side, in the L3-L4 using 27 G needle, and 4 mg of 0.1% hypobaric bupivacaine were administered. The patient remained in that position for 10 min. In the limb to be operated, the level of sensory block was observed in L1 without motor block. With this new technique that was obtained surgical analgesia, but without motor blockade. We call this new technique of unilateral sensitive spinal anesthesia.

The thickness of the anterior compartment does not indicate compartment syndrome in acutely traumatised legs?

BackgroundThe study was conducted to achieve early detection of increased compartment pressure by comparing the changes between the thickness and pressure within the musculofascial compartments after lower leg injury. MethodsWe included cases of a lower-leg fracture between January and December 2007. Bilateral lower leg compartment pressure and thickness were measured before the surgery and post-anaesthesia, and the surgery was performed within 12h after the initial trauma. The intracompartment pressure (ICP) was measured with a Wick catheter pressure monitor. The thickness (width) of the anterior compartment of lower leg was measured using ultrasound. ResultsAll data were measured within 4–6h of the injury. The average thickness in injured legs versus uninjured was 30mm (15–46mm) versus 20.4mm (13–30mm), P<0.001. The average intracompartment pressure (ICP) in injured leg versus uninjured was 45.3mmHg (26–80mmHg) versus 17.5mmHg (15–20mmHg), P<0.001. The thickness and ICP were significantly increased for injured lower legs compared to the uninjured legs, but the increase in ICP did not show a significant relationship with the change in thickness of the injured lower leg. ConclusionIn this study, the results of ICP and thickness changes of injury lower leg compared with uninjured leg revealed no statistically significant correlation. Some injuries showed a high ICP with only mild changes in thickness, while some showed a high ICP with significant changes. Although ultrasound has many advantages for the evaluation of soft tissue changes after trauma, this study revealed that thickness changes are not a predicable parameter for determining pressure on the acute fracture of lower leg.